Welcome to AIM Horsemanship patreon! This is a community for sharing our lives with our horses, what we learn from them, the holistic ways of caring for, keeping and working with them, improving our relationship with horses, solving behavioural problems in an ethical/LIMA/force-free way and much more. I'm looking forward to getting to know you and your horses.
You can
-Join for free! To access community chat and general posts
-Join our £4.50 a month teir as a paid member. You will gain access to exclusive posts (generally weekly) relating to equine behavioural science, training, holistic horse keeping, enrichment, enhancing the horse-humsn relationship and more.
-Join our £42.50 a month teir for personalised help with your horse from holistic equine behavioural therapist. You will fill out an in depth initial client questionnaire and be given initial intervention recommendations and potentially follow up questions, and then have access to ongoing help and support through video coaching, question and answers, etc.
Head over to Patreon to find AIM Horsemanship!
What do you do away from horses that changes your perspective and mindset when you're with horses?
For me, practicing daily yoga (even for just a few minutes on some days) helps me to become more aware of myself and anything that I might be projecting onto the horse. This helps me view behaviours from the horse more objectively instead of taking it personally or assuming why it's happening. It also helps me slow down my movements and become more present in the moment, all things I find super helpful and practical for working with horses (especially more nervous ones). Additionally, I feel like having a deeper self awareness and hopefully less judgement changes the way I view all beings in general and makes me feel more connected to the world around me (horses included).
I feel like our judgements and thoughts inevitably distort the way we view things (ie. horses' behaviours) and this is all part of the human experience. Learning to become aware of this and let go of thoughts or judgements that aren't serving me helps me to create a more accurate depiction of the horse's behaviour and more effectively apply behavioural modification. Additionally, I feel like it cultivates a foundation of empathy, acceptance and compassion - all things I love to invite into my time with horses.
I'm still working on my form, strength, flexibility and evolving understanding of yoga and I'm sure I always will be, but it's certainly been pivotal for me.
#yoga #horses #horseyoga #spiritual #meditation #mind #mindset #compassion #empathy #acceptance
Fun, brain games, proprioception and mental stimulation training for clever pony, Grace!
#horse #pony #clickertraining #liberty #forcefree #cornwall #yoga #horsebehaviourist #horsebehaviouristcornwall #vegan #gentle #equine
Grace plays football!
Fun, brain games, proprioception and mental stimulation training for clever pony, Grace!
#horse #pony #clickertraining #liberty #forcefree #cornwall #yoga #horsebehaviourist #horsebehaviouristcornwall #vegan #gentle #equine
Head-collar training with rescue pony, Grace.
It's one thing for a horse to accept having a headcollar put on, it's another for them to happily seek out the headcollar and actively engage in putting it on themselves.
In this session, we worked on targeting the headcollar, and then putting her nose in it. From there, I gradually started bringing the headpiece behind her ears.
Grace is super clever and picked it up very quickly!
Ofcourse, this is not to say the well used, mindful negative reinforcement won't work.
This is to show the difference in Izzy's movement and how eager she is to train.
Using a reverse round pen, long target or both can be great ways to make moving on a circle easy and fun whilst using force-free training.
.
.
#trust #freeriding #bitless #bitlessriding #tackless #tacklessriding #bareback #bridleless #bridlelessriding #liberty #libertyriding #libertyplay #libertywork #libertytraininghorses #possitivereinforcement #positivereinforcementforhorses #clickertraininghorses #barefoothorse #horsemanship #libertyhorsemanship #freedomtothehorse #targetsticksnotwhips #vegan #equineenrichment #wildpony #cobsofinstagram #cob #cornwall #cornish #clickertraining
Force-free, positive reinforcement training to help feral rescue pony, Finn, learn to have a headcollar put on for the first time.
Hill Pony Resources
Penny practicing her stay and recall to target. This is a super handy behaviour and can be used for so many different activities (agility, basic care, walks, free jumping, etc).
Walking together to relax and decompress ☺️🖤.
Here's Penny learning to play fetch. This is a fun and enriching game that can build confidence with novel objects and doesn't have to require lots of movement, so it's great for horses like Penny who are super clever and keen but have physical limitations due to conditions.
Here's Grace beginning to learn the game 'find the next cone'.
Grace is super smart and a quick learner so it's important to keep her mind stimulated.
This game can be used for the basis of lots of other force-free agility activities. 😊🖤